North Pole 2011

From 19.02.2011 to - Status: postponed

Falvey and his irish people trying the North Pole

This is the third part of a three poles challenge. After having already summiting Mt Everest and walking 1140 km to the South Pole (2008), the Irish adventurers are trying the classical trek Ward Hunt - North Pole.

Together with their famous mascot Freddy T Bear who has inspired over 200,000 children last year, Pat Falvey is taking the Irish adventurers to the top of the world. One may recall that last year, Falvey had taken two companions with him and that the trio Falvey, O'Leary and Dowd didn't stay out on the ice for long. Dropped off near Ward Hunt on 2nd March, they had to be rescued on the 8th! Bad frostbite appears to be the cause...

Here is what we had written on 15 March last spring : " Which means that the trip Pat Falvey thought was going to 'an historical and icy voyage', (according the update on 2nd March) now certainly won't be that. So, what happened? John Dowd (the least experienced of the three expedition members) had two frostbitten fingers. More specifically, he developed visible signs of frostbite on two of his fingers. As you would expect, the three adventurers discussed the situation in their tent one evening round the fire, and on 6th March, when they had only covered about fifteen kilometres on the pack-ice across terrain filled with gigantic hummocks, Falvey took the decision to call it a day and radio Ken Borek to send in a Twin Otter or DC3 to pick them up...."

This time, so far, Falvey is going back to the field with an old friend of his, Dr Cladre O'Leary, the expedition leader. The team is currently in Canada preparing for the trek. The expedition is set to start on the ice from the 25th February once the team successfully get their drop-off at Cape Discovery, Northern Canada.

Let's hope that this time the "historical icy voyage" as Falvey writes since last year takes place and suceeeds to reach the North Pole.